Trump and Biden have contradictory views on the president's handling of the pandemic with Trump asserting he's done better than any other world leader and Biden claiming he's done "virtually nothing."

Trump's insisted again that the pandemic is "going away," touting his administration's efforts on therapeutics and vaccines.

"I don't think we're gonna have a dark winter at all," Trump said. "I say we're learning to live with it. We have no choice. We can't lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does," drawing a laugh from Biden.

Biden emphasized the lives already lost, making a direct appeal to those at home.

"Number one, he says that we're, you know, we're learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it," Biden said. "You folks home who have an empty chair at the kitchen table this morning, that man or wife going to bed tonight and reaching over to try to touch their -- out of habit where their wife or husband was is gone. Learning to live with it? Come on."

When Trump threatened that Biden would shutdown the country if elected, causing massive economic depression, Biden said, "I'm going to shut down the virus, not the country."

In response to a question on how he would lead the country out of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden cited the more than 220,000 Americans who had died from the virus.

"Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America," he said.

Biden went on to say that Trump doesn't have a plan for dealing with the virus. He called for mask wearing, and a national policy on mask wearing, more testing and a national policy on reopening schools and businesses.

"I will take care of this. I will end this," Biden said to close out his first answer. "I will make sure we have a plan."

Trump tackled the first question on the coronavirus pandemic but stuck to his stance the pandemic is "rounding the corner" and "going away."

"Since the two of you last shared a stage, 16,000 Americans have died from COVID," Welker said. "So please be specific, how would you lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis?"

"As you know, 2.2 million people modelled out were expected to die," Trump began. "We closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from China."

He went on to draw from his personal experience contracting COVID-19, downplaying its side effects and touting the country's therapeutics.

"I can tell you from personal experience that I was in the hospital. I had it. And I got better," Trump said. "And I will tell you that I had something that they gave me, a therapeutic, I guess they would call it, some people could say it was a cure. But I was in for a short period of time and I got better very fast or I wouldn't be here tonight. And now they say I'm immune. Whether it's four months or a lifetime, nobody has been able to say that, but I'm immune."

"It will go away and as I say, we're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. It's going away," he added.

The final presidential debate has kicked off from Belmont University in Nashville marking Trump and Biden's final chance to pitch themselves to voters in primetime ahead of Nov. 3. The audience of roughly 200 people in stadium-style seating applauded as the candidates took the stage.

There was a last-minute change to remove the plexiglass partitions placed between the two candidates after Dr. Anthony Fauci weighed in and each tested negative for COVID-19. They remain socially distanced with at least 12 feet of space between them.

The first question from moderator Kristen Welker, NBC News White House correspondent, was on COVID-19 and went to the president.

Biden's mic will be muted while the president answers, and Trump's mic will follow suit when it's the former vice president's turn to weigh in.

"On behalf of the voters, I'm going to ask you to please speak one at a time. The goal is for you to hear each other and for the American people to hear every word of what you both have to say," Welker said.

Trump said his administration is "trying very hard" to locate the 545 children whose parents can't be located after being separated from their parents. However, the president also said that some of the children were brought to the U.S. by "coyotes" and "cartels."

He then pivoted to say that the Obama administration built the detention centers where many migrants are held.

"They had a picture in a certain newspaper, there was a picture of these horrible cages. They said look at these cages. President Trump built them," Trump said. "Then it was determined they were built in 2014. That was him. They built cages."

In a fiery response, Biden emphasized that the children came to the U.S. with their parents.

"Coyotes didn't bring them over, Biden said. "Their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents, and it makes us a laughingstock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation.

Welker asked about the Obama administration's failure to deliver on immigration reform. Biden said that it took too long to get the policy correct.

"It took too long to get it right. Took too long to get it right," he said. "I will be president of the United States, not vice president of the United States. And the fact is, I've made it very clear, within 100 days, I going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people and all of those so-called dreamers, those DACA kids, they are going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship."

Trump responded that Biden "had eight years to do what he said he was going to do."

Biden and Trump then went back and forth over the catch-and-release policy.